Media content is typically stored in a container that includes stream data, which represents the actual audio/video data, and seek index data, which represents an index of media frames, often associated with a time code indicating the playback time at which a particular frame occurs. Thus, seek operations such as fast-forward or rewind instructions conventionally necessitate examination of the seek index in order to determine which media frame to present after the fast-forward or rewind operation.
Conventional media content playback systems therefore require the seek index to be loaded (and/or downloaded in the case of streaming media content) before beginning playback of the media content. Hence, most media content container formats place the seek index at the beginning of the media content file. However, even in cases in which the seek index is not at the beginning of the file, the seek index will be fetched before starting playback. Because seek index data can be large, significant initial playback latency can be attributed to acquisition of the seek index.